Throughout this past year, our group’s focus has been based on finding a way to educate the Hmong population of Butte County about the laws regarding adult and child abuse in the United States. We decided to plan an educational workshop for the Hmong of Butte County. We chose this topic because we wanted to center our project on helping our cultural background. It is difficult to be an older Hmong person who is not able to read or write in English and thus understand the laws of adult and child abuse. There are many misconceptions among the Hmong community in Butte County about the regulations of adult and child abuse. Educating the Hmong community about the laws pertaining to child abuse informs the community that child and adult abuse is a serious problem in their neighborhoods.
Statement of Need
In the 2000 census, there were 204,000 people in Butte County (Upstate California Economic Development Council, n.d.). The largest age group in Butte County is adults who are between the ages of 25-44. The second largest age groups in Butte County are older adults, aged 65+, and children between the ages of 5-17 (Upstate California Economic Development Council, n.d.). According to the 2000 United State Census, (as cited in Hmong Cultural Center, Inc., n.d.) the total Hmong population in the United States is 169,428; 33,032 are males and 32,063 are females. Of the total Hmong population in the United States, 57.3% are under 18 years of age. California is ranked as the heaviest populated state with 65,095 Hmong. In California, 2,887 Hmong populate the surrounding areas from Chico to Paradise.
Child abuse is on the rise and is a serious problem for children of all ages. According to the American Humane Association (1989), “child abuse reports have doubled during the last ten years and now exceeds 2 million per year” (as cited in Berrick, 1991, p.1). McCurdy and Daro (1994) reported that over one million children confirmed as victims of child maltreatment in the United States in 1992 (as cited in McCurdy, 1995). Montague (1996) stated, “fifty three percent of children were neglected, 26 percent suffered physical abuse, and 22 percent suffered other types of abuse and neglect. Nearly half of abused and neglected children were six years old or younger” (p. 2).
Older adult abuse is an issue in a community. The most common type of abuse reported is neglect at 49% of the reported older adult abuse cases (Gray-Vickery, 2001). Psychological or emotional abuse accounts for 35% of cases reported (Gray-Vickery, 2001). The third most common type of reported abuse is financial abuse, which occurs in 30% of reported cases (Gray-Vickery, 2001). From our interviews with older Hmong adults, we learned that they did not know there were laws about older adult abuse. They related that they would not know where to turn to for help. There is a necessity to teach the awareness of the laws to the Hmong population from someone within their own culture, and that is, from people they are most comfortable with. Rothman & Dunlop (2001) state that the most important factor of elder abuse is the awareness in the community about this type of abuse.
With a large population of Hmong in the United States, the different understandings of child discipline, cultural values, and the American definition of child abuse and adult abuse, often clash. How can these misconceptions of abuse be prevented in the Hmong community?
Description of the Intervention
Our intervention was an educational workshop to bring awareness to the Hmong community about child and adult abuse. We wanted to teach them about the rules and regulations pertaining to child and adult abuse. Our workshop was planned for 3, hours but we were able to condense it down to 2 hours. Our workshop was presented in our native Hmong language. We completed our workshop on April 5, 2003 at a local Hmong center in Chico.
The intervention started with an opening about the purpose of the workshop, regulations of older adult abuse, types of elder abuse, how to spot abuse in one’s community, how to report abuse, who to report abuse to, and prevention of elder abuse. The second half of the workshop was a presentation of the Welfare and Institutions Code 300(a) - (j) used in social services. We presented a program used as a prevention to child abuse. At the end of the presentation, questions from the participants were answered in a timely manner. After all questions were answered, evaluations were given to the participants to fill out. The group interpreted the evaluations since some of the participants did not know how to read or write in Hmong. After the evaluations, there was a closing and snacks session.
Evaluation of the Intervention
Although only 12 people (five men and seven women) showed up for our educational workshop, the visible interest that these individuals presented during our workshop was empowering as well as astonishing. After each of us had presented and answered all questions, a small evaluation, written in Hmong and English, was handed out to the 12 persons that attended the workshop. The evaluation was written by all of the group members.
Since we are Hmong, we knew that the question on the evaluation needed to be simple due to language differences. It would be difficult for our participants if we made the questions complicated. The questions on the evaluation included (in English translation):
1. From this workshop, did you learn anything new? _____ yes _____ no
2. Did this workshop increase your awareness regarding laws and regulations pertaining to children and older adults? _____ yes _____ no _____ some
3. Was this workshop beneficial for you? _____ yes _____ no
4. Would the workshop be beneficial for the Hmong community? _____ yes _____ no
5. How effective were the
presenters in the workshop? _____ not effective
_____ somewhat
_____ very effective
The comments we received had a similar theme in that the respondents would like to see more Hmong people(s) working in every area of social services. One of the respondents commented on our workshop in English and she felt that “these kind of workshops can help and benefit the Hmong community as well as social service agencies” (Anonymous, April 5, 2003).
Reflections on the Project
As Hmong community members, we were very aware that our topic was a sensitive topic to the rest of the people in our culture. We were not sure how to convey our message about the rules and regulations pertaining to child abuse and elder abuse. From this project, we observed that educational workshop in our own language helped our community a great deal. The participants were able to comprehend and ask question easily. We also learned that the Hmong community has many other needs and seems willing to have social workers come teach them in other areas.
We would like to encourage other social workers to teach and educate in their native language to their native culture and see what a difference it will make to the community. It is an experience that was empowering and challenging to each one of us. It was very hard to speak in our language; however, it was very exciting to see that the Hmong women were proud of our efforts to teach them what we have learned.
References
Berrick, J.D., & Barth, R. P. (1991). The role of school social worker in child abuse prevention. Social Work in Education, 13(3), 195-203.
Gray-Vickrey, P. (2001). Protecting the older adult. Nursing Management, 32(10), 1-9.
Hmong Cultural Center, Inc. Retrieved September 30, 2002, from http://www.hmongcenter.org/california1.html
McCurdy, K. (1995). Risk assessment in child abuse prevention Program. Social Work Research, 19(2), 77-95.
Montague, J., & Pitman, H. (1996). Public health. H &HN: Hospitals & Health Networks, 70(10), 1-20.
Rothman, M. B., & Dunlop, B. D. (2001). A silent enemy. Hemisphere: A magazine of the Americas, 10(sic), 1-3.
Upstate California Economic Development Council. (n.d). Butte county, California statistical profile. Retrieved October 21, 2002, from http://www.upstatecalifornia.com/Norcal/Pdf/Butte.pdf
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